Biblical Literacy Podcast

Trapped? Feel like you can't get away from sin? Or worse yet, can’t overcome it? You're not alone! Paul had those same feelings, and today we explore that very topic - sanctification! What does it mean, and how are we really set free to live a holy life that is honoring to God? Those questions and more, as we study Paul and sanctification!

Did you choose God or did He choose you? Though the debate has existed for centuries, today we take a fresh approach to discover what God, through Paul, has to say about it! Together we will discover why Paul wrote what he did, what it means and what it doesn’t mean. Perhaps you’ll find Paul has already answered some of our 21st century questions ! This and much more as we seek to examine Paul’s w...

Time breeds familiarity, and with familiarity we begin to take for granted those things that were once fresh and new. You're probably doing that right now as you read this on a computer whose technology didn't even exist a generation ago! For many of us, that has occurred with the label “Christ.” “Christ” is used so often in the Bible, the uninitiated might think it the last name of Jesus! As we s...

Prepositions. Do they really matter? How might their use change the meaning of a sentence or phrase? Seven times in six verses Paul writes about the “faith of Christ.” Does Paul mean our faith in Christ or does he mean the faith that Christ has? Scholars around the globe are debating this issue. We join that debate today in our fourth installment of Paul’s theology on Christ.

Christ in us; us in Christ. Jesus introduced this concept to the disciples during their final evening together before his arrest. Paul was clear on this truth that while we live on earth as Christians, we are not alone. In a real sense, Christ lives within us and we live within him. This is true on a personal as well as a corporate (church) level. Scholars sometimes call this our participation in...

Jesus. Was he man? Was he God? Was he both? How would you answer? How would you answer in light of Paul's quote from the Old Testament 'Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.' ?Explore the rich depths of this subject as we explore what Paul and the Bible says about w...

What does Paul teach, directly or indirectly, about the “preexistent” Christ? What does it mean that Jesus was “in the form of God?” Is He truly in “the image of the invisible God” and how could He exist for all time and still be “the firstborn of all creation?”Join us as we discover the truth of the preexistent Christ! This is our first part of the lesson series on Paul’s theology of Christ.

Where is God? Have you ever asked that question? You can’t see him. You can’t touch him. But he is there. In fact, he is more than just ‘there’. God exists not only within the universe, but he also exists independently outside of the universe and outside of space and time. Two terms describe this for us: the immanence of God and the transcendence of God. Today, in our fourth lesson on Paul’s teach...

Have you ever seen a time when justice was denied? Disregarded? Ignored? That is NOT the kind of judge that Paul understands God to be. It is not the kind of justice that God practices. His justice is not for sale; he is not swayed by the powerful; he does not need to be re-elected. This week, we turn to consider Paul’s theology on God as Judge as we examine Paul on God – Part 3.

The Bible often speaks about God in terms of humanized traits and ideas so that we can better understand certain aspects of his character and nature. What does the Bible really mean when it calls God our “Father”? For us to understand Paul’s usage of “Father” more fully we need to put ourselves into Paul’s time and culture as best as we can to understand what Paul’s concept of a Father was. So we...